A long lifetime's end
by AGoodOmen
Summary: What do you do when you get home after three days running around after beetles, T-Rexes, mad scientists and future predators? Oh and one train. In fact,what do you do when you don't have to save the world any more Matt and Emily finally get some time to themselves. Spoilers for Series 5 Finale and previous episodes. Memily. I don't accept Future!Matt as canon, it made me too cross


**This is a bit different from what I've published so far, it's seriously shipper-y, so if that isn't your thing look away now. There's more ensemble stuff coming up I promise, I was just going through a Memily phase (still am in fact). The rating is necessary, in fact tell me if you think it needs to be put up. It's not full on smut but there is sexual content and (I think) one minor profanity plus very slight references to abuse/neglect. Hope you enjoy.**

Matt followed Emily into his flat and leant on the door to close it, grinning at the sheer ridiculousness of their job. "I mean," he said, "that sort of thing just doesn't happen."

"Matt, you do realise you're a man from the future saying this to a girl from the 1800s." She said, pausing at the foot of the stairs to quirk an eyebrow at him

"Fair point, but even so, I mean, a train vanishing magically from Kings Cross Station? Connor was right; it's all a bit Harry Potter."

"What?" She said vaguely; she was already learning to ignore anything Connor said that seemed like a reference to modern culture.

"Nothin', just a story."

"Speaking of stories," she said as they walked into the kitchenette "why don't you have any books?" He looked around the flat as if just realising the oversight now. He probably was, she thought wryly, being quite well acquainted with the way Matt Anderson's mind worked.

"I guess I just never thought about entertainment, or spare time, I never had any." He looked around again. "Jesus, I don't even have a DVD player, or a TV! I am so sorry for leaving you here before."

"That's all right, Ethan showed up just as I was about to throw myself off the roof from sheer boredom." She said, smiling to let him know she was joking. He grinned back, relieved that she could laugh about her experience - then again he'd always known Emily was not one to let a small thing like being kidnapped and buried alive get in her way for long. He turned the kettle on and yanked the fridge door open, muttering "food…" She watched as he rooted around, and eventually asked

"Can you cook?" Things had been so topsy-turvy lately that all the food she'd had had been from the ARC canteen, or bought hurriedly on the move. He turned around smiling slightly,

"Normally, yes, well, sort of, but not without any ingredients. Why? Were you offering?"

"Do I sound like I was that middle class?" She asked almost worriedly. "Of course I can't cook. All I had to do was plan the menu, the cook cooked, obviously."

"Obviously." He said, smirking slightly at her unconsciously defensive demeanour. She noticed the smirk and returned it with one of her own.

"I can cook tree creeper stew though." She said with a straight face.

"Yeah, well, we're all out of tree creeper I'm afraid." He said, turning to explore the week's junk mail looking for a takeaway menu. When she didn't so much as giggle he turned back. "Seriously? Nothin'?" She smiled sardonically. "You know, you and Becker have a lot in common" he said, going back to his rummage. He pulled a pizza menu, a Thai one and some kind of kebab shop one from the pile. Glancing at the woman now perched on the counter he discarded the kebab shop flyer, and waved the other two under her nose. She scowled playfully at him, swung her legs over the counter and jumped down on the other side. She examined the flyers.

"What," she said after a moment, "Is this?"

"Food" he replied simply.

"No it's not, it's nonsense. Pizza" (She pronounced it 'peeza') "is not a word. And what does 'Thai' mean?"

"Thai, means from Thailand, I guess you know it as Siam," Her eyes widened in understanding and she nodded, he smiled, relieved that she was so quick on the uptake. "And pizza is an Italian food."

"People from these countries come here and sell their food?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's actually quite difficult to find anything from England." He grinned, watching patriotism rise on her face. "The national dish of Great Britain is actually chicken tikka masala."

"That sounds like Hindustani." She said incredulously, then her face cleared, "Well, obviously the Empire increased international trading and migration hugely. I should have expected England to be a much more diverse place." Matt just looked at the marvellous woman who could rise to anything.

"I guess I don't need to go over the entirety of Britain's culinary history before we can have dinner?" He grinned.

"I do need to do some catching up," she said seriously.

"Food first." He insisted. She smiled.

"Well as I don't have the first idea about either cuisine, you should choose." She said, nodding at the menus. He sighed mock dramatically, and she smiled at how much freer he was, now he had completed his mission.

"OK," he said after a moment's deliberation, "let's try something different." He picked up the Thai menu and opened it.

He placed the order whilst she tried to decode the menus, She had an insatiable desire to understand how the world worked, bolstered by a determination that if as she was going to live in this time she was jolly well going to do it properly, and not make a fool of herself by betraying her naivety at every new experience. She looked up as he clicked his phone shut, and smiled. He came over and glanced at her reading material.

"One thing," she asked "why does everything cost so much? Eight pounds was my personal maidservant's wage for a year. And I was a generous mistress. How do poor people eat?" Matt gazed slightly blankly at her, wondering how to explain complex economics to a woman whose education probably consisted mostly of sewing, dancing and, later, dinosaur fighting.

"Have you ever heard of inflation?" He asked tentatively.

"Oh yes, is that what this is? It has gone up very fast." He stared, mouth slightly open. "You look like Connor." She teased.

"I didn't think your upbringing would have included economic theory."

"It didn't. I was a wealthy man's eldest daughter, I was more, part of the economic process. A decorative item to be bought and sold, keep the money going round, keep the world spinning." She only had the barest hint of bitterness in her voice, but his arm tightened round her shoulders. She looked up at him and smiled. "One of the travellers, a man called Fletcher, was doing something called a Masters, I think, in economics before he walked through the gateway. He used to talk about it in his sleep, reciting long strings of information. It sounded interesting, so I listened. You would be surprised what I learnt from those people." He was about to ask her more when the bell rang and he walked off to deal with the delivery.

"It wasn't too spicy for you?" He asked concernedly, as he put the leftovers into the refrigerator.

"I'm fine." She reassured him. "It was lovely; I've never had so many flavours in one dish before. It was certainly a new experience. Thank you."

"Well, tomorrow we'll try pizza," he said with a grin "you shouldn't need so much water with that." She threw the tea towel at him.

Though they were both exhausted from the exertions of the day, they both knew that they were far too wired to sleep, so they flopped down on the sofa. Matt stared around the room, before shaking his head and saying "Wow, I guess I really was wrapped up in it all, huh?" Emily looked at the empty shelves and Spartan furnishings.

"Yes, Matt, I think you were. No-one doesn't have books." She said this with such an air of finality he had to laugh.

"I guess I'm no-one then."

"Well you clearly don't live." She smiled at him, gesturing to the empty room. "You just exist here." She said, by way of explanation. He wobbled his head at her and said

"Well, in the absence of books or TV, I guess we'll just have to entertain each other." He wrapped an arm round her and pulled her closer. She smiled up at him and nestled herself in his shoulder. She was constantly amazed at how comfortable and natural having him near felt. They'd always known exactly how to move around each other and each touch always felt like it was slotting into some predestined place. She had wondered at first about the closeness between Abby and Connor, or even how close Becker stood to Jess at the ADD, but after spending time with Matt she had realised that, for them, that closeness must feel as natural as Matt's presence did to her.

Matt looked down at the woman in his arms, in her jodhpurs and shirt she was as alive and natural as she had been in a corset and long skirt or a leather armoured doublet. Emily just fit, she fit at the ARC and she fit into his arms and his life and this time he was going to make sure she stayed. He wondered how hard it must have been for her to fit into the one place she was meant to, her own time. He wanted to know everything about her, so he could fit the world even more perfectly around her.

He started telling stories. Funny stories about Abby and Connor's arguments, or Becker and his guns, exciting stories about anomaly alerts and the time Connor had nearly killed Philip ("would have saved me the trouble"). He told old stories, ones Becker had told him about the old team, Cutter's mad scientist ways, Danny's maverick stunts. In response she told him tales of her own, stories of her Season, the ridiculous proposals from various dandies, the great balls and the machinations of matchmaking mothers. She told him of the people she travelled with, of Anna, the scientist who found out how to locate anomalies, of James the hunter who had been stalking a lion when he crawled through an anomaly, of Hindlemar who spoke a queer language of the long ago Germanic peoples. She was an excellent story teller, and Matt found years of reserve had fallen away, and he was able to talk just as well as she.

Their stories slotted together, interweaving, each being reminded of another by something in the last tale. Gradually they grew more personal, and she told him of her shock at meeting the travelling band's women, who were free and just as capable as the men, and how at first she had recoiled, fearful of the difference. He told her of the time he had rebelled against his father's strict rules and stormed off into the night, and how hard he had found the decision to go back. She talked about the day her father informed her of her great luck, that she was going to marry Lord Henry Merchant, and he always knew she would form a great alliance. When she described how she bowed her head and said "Of course, father" his grip tightened momentarily, but she placed a hand over his and he relaxed. He told how after his mother was killed by a predator his father had joined the Intervention operation, and been sent back to Ireland with twelve year old Matt. He recalled his wonder at all the life, and the greenness of the world, the first time he stepped through the anomaly. She in turn described her reactions on finding herself in an arid forest, surrounded by strange noises, and her despair when the golden gateway vanished. He spoke of his childhood, partially spent in Ireland, partially in the future, being home-schooled by his father and trained in saving the world. She spoke of her wedding, he of his time in the army. They had been talking for many hours by now, but were completely oblivious, each wrapped up in the other's life.

"…I ran back through the gateway, but when I looked around the fool had come after me." She said with a smile. He raised an eyebrow and said

"I once ran through an anomaly after a mysterious woman, who then proceeded to clobber me half to death and call me a fool." He laughed a little and kissed her hair. "You and Becker really do have a lot in common." She smiled at him in a frightening imitation of Becker and nestled back against him.

"Well, you know the rest, you dragged me back and hid me from the Captain, chaos ensued."

"Hold on," he said mock-indignantly "Dragged you back? I seem to recall saving you from some murderous arboreal raptors, or am I imagining things?" She just smiled, and kissed his shoulder. He smiled at the instinctive gesture, and would have liked to simply fall asleep like this, but there was one more story he needed to hear.

"Emily, what happened when you went back? Where did you go?" She looked at him for a moment.

"I went back to my house."

"But what happened to you?"

"I re-joined society. I tried to ignore the whispers, and I said I didn't remember anything. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with me, but Henry had said I was ill and unfit to be seen so no-one really knew what had happened. He was very angry with me. Especially when I wouldn't tell him where I'd been. I just tried to forget the future, and the anomalies and you. And then there was the raptor, and it was killing people, and I went looking for it and, well, you were there."

"Did he hurt you? Don't worry, he's dead, I'm not about to go on a one man vengeance mission. But you flinched when he shouted. You can't hide something like that Emily." She saw the pain in his eyes at the thought of her being hurt. She intertwined their fingers and squeezed lightly, to tell him that she knew.

"He never hit me Matt. I promise."

"Good." He said, simply. He smiled at her, cupping her cheek in his free hand and kissing her slowly. It was different from the hard, desperate kiss earlier, when they both believed he was going to be gone forever and there was nothing else to say. It was different from the chaste, maddening, sorrowful kiss he had pressed to the corner of her mouth before he walked back through his anomaly, and it was different from the un-premeditated, swift touch of the lips that was part of their farewell hug that very first goodbye. It was soft and sweet and giving and still. It was just them, there was no goodbye, and no apocalypse. She caught her breath as they pulled apart, resting their foreheads together, he looked at her and she saw a slightly worried smile in his eyes. To remove that worry and satisfy some unknown need that the first kiss had ignited she ducked her head upwards and closed her lips on his, he pulled her closer and she twined her arms around his neck, allowing her instincts to take over.

The first kiss had been generous, giving, this one was hungry. His lips roamed over hers, moving and moulding her mouth to his as he teased her lips apart with his tongue. She stiffened slightly at the unfamiliar sensation and he slowed down, giving her time to get used to it without breaking the kiss. Her tongue flicked tentatively against his and she tasted the spices from their dinner. He deepened the kiss, tasting her as she did him. He had pulled her almost onto his lap and now he moved her so she was completely resting on him, breaking the kiss and fluttering his lips down her neck and along her collarbone. She felt the sensation stir something in her and sighed with pleasure when he placed a kiss in the hollow of her throat. His face came back up and he looked at her with darkened eyes before moving in to kiss her again.

Matt was on fire, his every thought was of the woman in his arms and her softness as she melted into the kiss. He stroked his hands down her back and picked her up, never breaking the all-consuming kiss, her hands were clinging to his head, stroking his face and hair one minute and running over his back, pulling him closer the next. He carried her over to his bed, her weight seeming as nothing. He opened his eyes and looked at her. Her eyes were closed and she was making small moans of satisfaction. He lowered her down, kissing her repeatedly, stroking his hands down the length of her body, then back up, marvelling at her beauty. He was straining against his jeans now, but he kept kissing her, wanting to take it slowly, wanting to savour her.

Emily felt his erection pressing at her thigh, and opened her eyes wide. She broke from the kiss and brought her hands up in shock. "Matt!" he looked at her concernedly, still in a bit of a daze. "Matt I don't want children!"

"What? Oh, Emily, It's OK, I've got protection." He said, leaning down to kiss her again.

"Matt, I said I didn't want children." She reiterated, sitting up and scooting away.

"Neither do I, at least, not now." He replied bemusedly, sitting on the bed and looking at her quizzically.

"What are you doing then?" she asked accusingly.

"Uh?" He said, more than slightly confused. "Emily, if you don't want to go this far yet, all you have to do is say." He pushed back his disappointment desperately. Thankfully she didn't seem to see it.

"But Matt, if you don't want children then why were you…preparing for sexual intercourse?" She said, slightly awkwardly. He frowned.

"Emily, having children isn't the only reason to have sex."

"Why else would you go through something that hurts so much?"

Matt felt like ice had just replaced all his blood. "Your husband hurt you." He stated. It wasn't a question.

"He wanted an heir, and that was my job." The calm voice she said it in made it so much worse. She's actually rationalised it. "He would come to my room at night and when it was over he would leave. I got used to it, but I don't want to go through it again."

"Emily." His voice was shaking and as she looked at him she realised she had never seen him so angry, not at Philip, or Ethan, or the potential end of the world. She reached over and took his hand. "Matt, it's ok."

"No. It's not." He said quietly. "That bastard took control of your life and he couldn't even do it properly. Couldn't he see he was hurting you?"

"He never really looked at my face, he certainly never kissed me." She moved over to sit beside him. "Why would you mix something as nice as kissing with something nasty?"

"Emily, I am truly sorry for what that man did to you." He looked up and even in the dim light she could see his eyes were a bit too bright.

"What do you mean? It's part of being a wife. It wasn't your fault I got married." She tried to reassure him.

"It's not meant to hurt." He said simply, looking away. She looked up, understanding flooding her face. "It's meant to be… beautiful. I would never hurt you Emily. Please tell me you know that."

"I know… Matt I'm sorry." He looked up sharply and shook his head.

"No. Don't ever be sorry for speaking up and don't ever be sorry for what that man did to you. It's my fault for assuming he had an iota of humanity in him." He hugged her and stood up, ready to leave. "I'm not going to ask you for anything but I want you to know you're safe with me, Emily. I promise. I want you to know I love you, and when you're ready I will be here to show you." He kissed her once and walked round the corner.

"Matt!" Emily sprung off the bed and hastened round the corner. She raced into his arms and kissed him with all the fervour she could muster after the shock of the revelations. "I love you. I trust you. I'm ready." She took his hand and looked him straight in the eyes. "Show me."

**What did you think? I don't normally write guys as that understanding and gentlemanly (in my non-fanfiction) because it doesn't fit with my experience or with the experience of anyone I know, but Matt just seemed the type. Be darlings and press that pretty review button for me. Do you thin I should have split this into chapters? Any advice about the rating etc PM me.**


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